"It's Not
About What
We Don't
lieve.
It's About
What We Do
Believe'
El Al Attitude
Adjustment?
New president pledges better service, food and leg
room on carrier, even if privatization fizzles.
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aying El Al Israel Airlines
has to be "more efficient
and better if we want to
survive," the company's
new president vowed to put all
4,000 employees through a 16-
hour service-improvement course,
stabilize time schedules, improve
the reservation system, offer
healthier food and widen the
space between seats.
In addition, Joel Feldschuh
said at a press conference that in
the next three years he planned
to buy five 150-seat airplanes.
That move, he explained, will en-
hance profitability on routes that
do not require jumbo jets and will
require the selling of some 400-
seat planes "so our fleet will be
balanced."
These changes will be made
even if the Israeli government
does not move forward on plans
to privatize the airline, Feldschuh
said. But he quickly added that
"the company has to be priva-
tized" and said he hoped that
would happen within one year.
"We couldn't survive a long
time" without the move, he said.
Feldschuh was appointed pres-
ident last September after his pre-
decessor, Rafi Harley, quit after
complaining that he could not get
assurances the government would
privatize El Al.
A government committee head-
ed by prime ministerial econom-
ic adviser Moshe Leon suggested
recently that El Al be privatized
at once, with part of it sold as
shares on the Tel Aviv Stock Ex-
change and the rest as bonds. A
proposal to privatize El Al three
years ago had suggested that only
half of the airline be sold to the
public on both the Tel Aviv and
New York stock exchanges when
market conditions were right.
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"
El Al is planning friendlier skies.
The committee said the airline
should operate on the Sabbath
provided the move would not re-
sult in an overall increase in air
traffic on the Sabbath. Opposition
of religious parties to allowing El
Al to operate on the Sabbath has
prevented privatization in the
past.
Asked whether a privatized El
Al would fly on the Sabbath, Feld-
schuh said it would have no
choice. To keep operations at the
present level of five days a week
would cost the airline $50 million,
he said.
"Either the government gives
us $50 million a year or it lets us
fly like other companies," he said.
"And the government is not mov-
ing to do that."
Doesn't El Al risk losing Or-
thodox Jewish passengers who
would object to it flying on the
Sabbath?
"We might lose but we might
gain others who now fly Swiss Air
or TWA," Feldschuh replied. "And
will religious people fly elsewhere?
All other airlines fly on the Sab-
bath. Many religious people fly
with Tower now ... I think it's
more for political than religious
reasons [that they object to El Al
flying on the Sabbath]."
Feldschuh pointed out that El
Al is facing stiff competition from
European airlines and that to re-
main competitive it has been
forced to cut its margin of profit
on each ticket by a total of 12 per-
cent over the last two years.
Noting that half of the popula-
tion of Israel will now fly overseas
at least once a year, Feldschuh
said El Al, which was "built for
tourism traffic during the sum-
mer," must now change its fleet
EL AL page 113